This article was first published by RNZ.
A Sydney-based Māori group is proceeding with its development of a ‘marae’, despite pushback from local Aboriginal people.
Sydney Marae Alliance (SMA) chairperson Louise Cooper (Ngāti Hine) said the multi-purpose cultural centre is to be all-inclusive of Māori, Pasifika and Aboriginal peoples, providing cultural education, a place for hui, wānanga and events, and will give Māori somewhere to connect.
“It will have the āhuatanga (characteristics) of a marae, and it will encompass all of the things that are natural to us as Māori.”
In 2022, the SMA gained approval to occupy the Hyland Road Reserve in Sydney, and in June, got consent from the New South Wales Planning and Development Department and the Cumberland Council to build on the 15-hectare block.
It hopes to open the doors within the next four years, but more funds are needed.
So far the ropū has raised A$450,000 (NZ$491,000), with A$187,000 coming from a fundraising gala last year.
But the amount raised barely scrapes the bottom of the jar.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to find $14 million. No one is walking around with $14 million to just hand over to us,” Cooper said.
The next phase is to get a detailed engineering, architecture, and landscape plan as well as set aside money to pay for the 20-year land lease which all costs an additional $400,000.
The SMA will start the next round of fundraising at the end of August.
Is it a marae?
“When we said it was a marae, we got a lot of kickback from home [Aotearoa] saying you can’t do that,” Cooper said.
And when the SMA recently announced that it was a cultural centre, the first nation people of the Dharug Ngurra said, “that’s our word”.
“We don’t want to offend anyone but what can we call it?” Cooper said.
The SMA said it was a Sydney-based organisation that was building a cultural hub with the design of a traditional wharenui.
“Call it a marae, call it cultural centre, call it a cultural hub - there’s just an absolute need for something to be here for our kids and kaumātua.”
But there were split views from Māori on both sides of the Tasman.
Māori have called Sydney a home away from home for the last 231 years with a long line of trade, migration, and heritage with Australia since 1793.
The latest census data shows that there are over 170,000 people with Māori whakapapa living in Australia.
“It’s not going to be our home, because we all whakapapa back to home. But if you don’t know where you come from, then we can help you connect.
“I know many of our hāpori (community) go home a lot. However, that doesn’t make up for the fact that we don’t have a place here as well, for pāpaku, for our rangatahi.”
But they were treading in unsettled waters.
Forty years ago, Māori and the Ngurra elders came to a mutual unofficial agreement where approval was granted to build a marae on the land.
But many of those who were “carrying the mantle” back then have since died, and the initial conversations between the two cultures were never passed down to the rest of Dharug Ngurra.
Therefore, there have been further pushbacks from nearby residents and the Dharug Ngurra Aboriginal community.
“The local people didn’t want anything on the whenua because it’s barren. It’s a big parkland so [the locals] would prefer to keep it as is,” Cooper said.
The Dharug Ngurra have publicly claimed they were being “re-colonised” with the cultural centre being placed “on country” - traditional land associated with the Aboriginal tribe.
Relationship needed before any decision
Senior Dharug Ngurra woman Corina Wayali Norman said the SMA had consulted their people to gain approval.
“We basically said no. We cannot speak on behalf of our mob [Aboriginal term for their people], we have to go into the community, and we [both Māori and Aboriginal] have to grow a relationship first.
“They just ignored us. Then two years later, I’m seeing a video and it’s showing them doing a pōwhiri on Ngurra land, and it was like the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Cumberland City Council played a pivotal role in the decision to have the marae despite the Ngurra requesting community consultations around the matter.
“They have not addressed the historical and ongoing inequality for us,” Norman said.
The council told RNZ it did not wish to provide any comment for this story.
Norman said her community was meant to be informed on the SMA movements but she had no knowledge that the 20-year lease was granted before it became a public pānui (announcement).
“We’re first peoples of this place, [the land] wasn’t even offered to us first,” she said.
The Aboriginal community was calling for an “apology without a but”.
“A public apology will start the healing process, but it will also help Dharug people come together.”
At the same time, Norman was caught in a whirlpool of being a Dharug Ngurra Woman with Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi Māori whakapapa.
“It’s a real, complex issue, and it evokes so many emotions and concerns, especially within our community. And being Māori as well, I’ve got people that might not understand my stance.”
But she hoped that the SMA would be willing to come to an agreement on a more inclusive and equitable community that respected First Nation people with the Ngurra given their own space on the leased land.
She said that if the SMA reached its $14 million target for the build, it would be an amazing thing.
“When we [Māori] come together, and when we’ve got a goal, we will move heaven and earth to get there.”
Marae outside Aotearoa
Māori have ventured and settled all around te ao and have created Māori-based groups as a form of connection to their heritage.
There are five marae located outside of Aotearoa including:
Ruatepupuke II
Originally from Tokomaru Bay, Ruatepupuke II (Ngāti Porou) is a marae that now has a permanent residence in Chicago’s Field Museum. The Field Museum not only holds the wharenui from New Zealand, but also 3,000 Māori carvings and 66,000 cultural pieces from the Pacific islands.
Ruatepupuke II was originally sold to a ‘Mr. Hindmarsh’ who then sold it to the Umlauff Museum in Hamburg, Germany, which was resold to his current residence in 1905.
Hinemihi
Hinemihi was moved from Te Wairoa - a village buried by the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption. Hinemihi currently is based at Clandon Park in Surrey, in the UK, but the original carvings are set to be returned to Aotearoa in replacement for new ones.
Hawaikiroa
Hawaikiroa is a Whare Tūpuna at the Polynesian Cultural Centre on Oahu, Hawai’i. Its two whare stand on either side of an open space, called Te Arohanui o Te Iwi Māori Marae.
By Emma Andrews of RNZ.